[openfly]

I hate the current offensive, embarrassing, horrific BA safety video. It’s on Titter that the second one is about to be released due to “the success of the first one”!!
It really annoys me that at the end it says “every penny of your money goes to the poor children of the world”. Errr not quite true as the first £18m goes to running the Relief company and its 288 staff!

[Ekond222]

…’Titter ye not’…

[capetonianm]

If you are referring to that pathetic cringeworthy safety video featuring so-called ‘celebrities’, of whom the only ones I had ever heard of are Gordon Ramsay and Rowan Atkinson, I think it’s a disgrace and an embarrassment, as well as unlikely to be understood properly by non-native English speakers.

That they think it was a success just proves that they are not asking the right people, if any, for feedback. That they can waste more money on another one proves that their management needs to be swept out and replaced.

[LuganoPirate]

I just watched it on YouTube. I guess it’s amusing the first time but boring I’d imagine after 3 views and at 6 minutes much too long. As for the envelope, do cabin crew really come around to collect them?

Good point Openfly on how much Comic Relief take in admin fees. It’s one of the reasons I don’t support these big charities, apart from the controversy of where the money actually goes and who really benefits, they tend to become political which I think has an adverse effect on the work they do and their image. My support goes to those small charities where there are no fat cat executives, the field staff use small cars and employ locals wherever they can.

I realise charities have admin costs but I prefer to support those where they are reasonable and upfront about them. It’s also important to support those charities that look to educate people and eradicate the problem. Not those that want the problem to continue so they can continue to ask for funds to support themselves. If they were successful they’d no longer have a purpose and all then be unemployed.

Read “Dead Aid” by Dambisa Moyo. It’s eye opening and analyses the history of economic development over the last 50 years, showing how aid crowds out financial and social capital and directly causes corruption and can make people worse off than before. The piece about the fishing nets is particularly illuminating.

[capetonianm]

I can thoroughly recommend Dambisa Moyo’s book. It’s a sad and shocking revelation of the harm that foreign aid to Africa does to those are meant to benefit from it.

[FDOS_UK]

Having ‘enjoyed’ this 6 minutes of rubbish far more times than is healthy for my sanity, I second capetonianm’s comments.

BA seems to have lost sight of the fact that this is a SAFETY BRIEFING. The formula for such a communication should be brevity, clarity and ease of comprehension.

The BA video fails on the following points:

– too long (over 5 minutes 20 seconds for the safety part and nearly 7 minutes for the whole end to end viewing)
– too many ‘in jokes’ that will confuse many people (e.g. don’t be so hard on yourself)
– too much reliance on understanding of British culture
– verbose language construction that is difficult for some people with English as a foreign language to understand

To add insult to injury, the narrator informs people to stow their video screens whilst they are still required to view some subsequent safety information.

All in all, it is not fit for purpose, which should be to inform people of the vital safety aspects – knowing that wizard pipes are banned is a total irrelevancy that wastes 5 seconds and probably confuses anyone with poor English (given that it is an English only video).

One should set clear criteria for a communication, e.g.

– for a safety briefing, recall of safety information
– for a brand communication, recall of the brand, entertainment and a call to action

The BA ‘safety’ video fails miserably on the first (IMO) and succeeds on the second for the British audience, if the humour is to taste.

Classic communications strategy says create messages inline with AIDCA – Attract attention, Interest people, create desire, confirm what you want and establish the action you wish to happen – if people are focusing on the celebs and jokes, I would assess that the video has failed as the point should be awareness of equipment/usage, exits and other relevant data that needs to be retained for the duration of the flight.

I will not watch it, anymore, I instead read the safety card to put the key facts into memory.

[openfly]

It’s heartening to hear that you guys hate it as well!

[FDOS_UK]

Here are a couple of examples of focused videos

Emirates – 2 minutes 45 seconds – my favourite, short, to the point

Emirates again – 7 minutes 30 seconds for Arabic and English versions (less than 4 minutes for each) – shows a bit more detail in relation to the cabin, still short enough and easy to understand

[MartynSinclair]

I think its important that the content is frequently changed, but at 6 minutes 10 seconds, its way too long to keep most pax’s attention. BA crew ask us to give it our complete attention, but it’s literally a Joke

How on earth did BA / Twitter, come to the conclusion it was a success..

I smile when cabin crew are asked to do the manual presentation. Its fast and directly to the point about what matters…

“its for Joanna Lumley… darling” – OMG……

[LuganoPirate]

And despite two references being made about Joanna, raising my hopes we might get to see her, see her did we not!! Where was she?

[Flightlevel]

Joanna Lumley’s voice would be listened to – better than the ‘cartoon’ characters on the video, and why is it only in English when all other cabin announcements are in multiple languages to stop you watching the movie!
Not even subtitled! And another point why are the movies subtitled in every language except English!

[Swissdiver]

As a non native English speaker, I actually found it somewhat funny, at least at the beginning, also I agree it a bit too long. And I believe it does pass some key messages such as “taking nothing with you, I mean nothing”. But a new one would be welcomed as I can’t hear it anymore…

[rferguson]

I’m not a fan of it either for the following reasons:
– unless you are british you won’t know who the majority of the ‘stars’ are.
– unless you are british you won’t ‘get’ most of the humour.
– initially it had no foreign subtitles and even though these have now been added the flow and humour just doesn’t translate so the subtitles follow the form of a ‘normal’ safety briefing and those that don’t speak/understand english look at it in bemusement.

I mean I know it’s ‘British’ Airways but our foreign customer base probably makes up around 50% of our passengers.

Saying all that (and having been at BA for more than one or two incarnations of the safety video) it DOES probably get the most attention and definitely chuckles of any of the safety videos i’ve stood in front of pointing out exits before. So I guess some must find it amusing.

My favourite safety video is the previous Qantas one – it showcases amazing locations in Australia and cleverly ties it in with safety requirements onboard the aircraft. I wish BA would have done something similar with locations across the UK (or some on here would say London LOL).

1 user thanked author for this post.

maxgeorge

[DavidArnold]

Personally l enjoy the video as it at least attracts attention from the passenger whereas previous standardized videos are somewhat boring and did not grab attention which is the main point. The amount of people from around the world who watch and listen is quite heartening. Air New Zealand and Air Canada also have watchable safety videos that provide likeable, thought-provoking items. The BA bashers seem to rear their ugly heads again and to be honest they probably zone out of watching the video and instead read through the menu card or wine list. You are getting quite tedious now and please if you do not like BA don’t fly them!!!

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=869733]Personally l enjoy the video as it at least attracts attention from the passenger whereas previous standardized videos are somewhat boring and did not grab attention which is the main point. The amount of people from around the world who watch and listen is quite heartening. Air New Zealand and Air Canada also have watchable safety videos that provide likeable, thought-provoking items. The BA bashers seem to rear their ugly heads again and to be honest they probably zone out of watching the video and instead read through the menu card or wine list. You are getting quite tedious now and please if you do not like BA don’t fly them!!![/quote]

Jolly good, the flag still flies over the empire and all is well, Brexit is going to work out just fine and England will win the World Cup.

It’s a whizzer, isn’t it.

1 user thanked author for this post.

maxgeorge

[Author]

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